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I drove down the dark winding street wearing a grey suit and holding a grenade in one hand. I paid attention intently to the road as the streetlights blurred past. The artist sitting in the passenger seat was speaking to our dear friend on the phone, persuading him not to fall yet. With his free hand he sketched what he saw through the windshield with a dried up pen. In the back seat the two oblivious lovers drank champagne and laughed as they ate the stolen cake and waved to the car fast on our trail.

“Keep a steady mind, don’t lose focus, we’re almost there,” whispered the artist in to the phone. I heard the two in the back tumble towards the right as I twisted the steering wheel left. The lights were starting to blur from the speed so I kicked the car into second gear as we flew down towards the cliff. I heard the screeching of the breaks behind me so I looked to my passenger and said “Now.” The artist repeated the word into the phone and the couple began to weep passionately. With my teeth I pulled the pin of the grenade and cut the wheel. The artist threw his drawing out the window just before we started rolling violently. The car chasing us flew by with a whiff of burnt rubber and rocketed off the edge and into the opposing cliff face with a bright explosion. The lights looked like a pretty blur as we tumbled; we were all smiles, eating cake, numb with anticipation.

The grenade exploded. All four of us were launched into the sky like cannonballs. We flew towards our friend the pilot as he parachuted down from the sky. He caught us all in his arms. We fed him cake and he told us about the fun time he had watching the heist from above. We descended slowly towards the streetlights below, upon their silent manifesto.

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Yo. Okay, time for a ska post. It is pretty much impossible to enjoy a good dose of ska. Especially if you find yourself wearing a suit and about to rob a bank. If you, however, are unable to enjoy ska and such things, then I will have to unfortunately inform you of your soullessness. But don’t worry, because it’s really hard.

Streetlight Manifesto is from New Jersey. The front man, Tomas Kalnoky, used to be the front man of another popular ska band Catch 22. The band is actually considered punk, with influences of ska. Basically, the music consists of many horns and fast, bass driven, chord progressions.

The songs which you may have already heard, or are still listening to, are from their albums Everything goes Numb and Somewhere in Between. The albums are fast paced and epic. The themes are dark and the lyrics depressing, yet the nature of the type of music prevents it from being perceived as anything other than happy.

Just in case you do not know how to read Youtube titles, here is the list of songs I used. “We Will Fall Together.” “Everything Went Numb.” “A Moment of Silence.”

This is the type of music that anyone can get into. It is instrumentally amazing. The man has that perfect punk voice. The themes approach something directly opposite of the vibe that the tunes puts out, a yin and yang rarely seen in the music scene. Most of their songs are pretty much about dying, yet they keep it cool with talks of guns and horns. What more can you ask for?